Search Results (6)

Cyprus with its rich cultural heritage has been the showcase of ornamentation throughout history with a rich variety of materials, details, and narratives. Integrating ornamentation with its body architecture can be seen as one of the storytellers of these narratives through design elements. After the mid-1990s when casinos had been banned in Turkey, five-star casino hotels became one of the main investment areas in North Cyprus. Together with this new building type and new users’ expectations with a new understanding of holidays, the 21st century brought the changing use of ornamentation in hotel interiors and, hence, decoration came to the fore more than before. Hotel lobbies welcoming the users to their second homes and introducing the hotels’ identities have always been seen as the most important area of hotels by investors, designers, and hotel managers. Sometimes the reception areas were perceived as the living room of the hotel customers where they feel attached culturally, socially, or economically, and sometimes it could be a place where they can feel themselves as one of the characters of ancient history, a king or a queen for a while. Hence, hotel interiors, in general, and hotel lobbies, in particular, acted as a cultural representative, a social status symbol, and a political image of the story told. The aim of this paper is to examine five-star hotel lobbies within the framework of ornamentation through a reading model created with the concepts used by theoreticians. Together with the site visits and visual recordings, the analysis conducted in this paper is based on qualitative data incorporated by a rich theoretical background on ornamentation. The paper tries to highlight the representational value of ornamentation that can help to understand and interpret the spatial transformation of hotel interiors. Full article

This study aimed to assess the cyclic load capacity of wooden chairs and subsequently categorize them based on their performance. A diverse selection of chair models was randomly procured from commercial markets. These chairs underwent performance testing, utilizing the cyclic stepped increasing loading method, with adherence to the standards set forth by the American Library Association Technology Reports (ALA). The study evaluated 315 chairs, encompassing 21 chair models. Each chair model underwent five replications of testing across three different loading directions. The resulting dataset of numerical values was subjected to statistical analyses, facilitating the categorization of chairs based on their strength under cyclic loads. Notably, the study revealed substantial variations in the load capacity among different chair models. As a consequence of this investigation, the study established acceptable design load thresholds. For instance, concerning front-to-back loading, it was determined that the chairs with cyclic load capacities ranging from 932 to 1449 N fell within the category of low-strength, between 1450 and 1968 N were classified as medium-strength (suitable for domestic use), and the chairs with cyclic load capacities exceeding 1968 N were considered to possess high strength (intended for hotel lobbies, restaurants, libraries, etc.). Similarly, for back-to-front loading performance, the study identified the chairs with cyclic load capacities between 625 and 895 N as low-strength, 896 and 1167 N as medium-strength, and the chairs with loads surpassing 1168 N as high-strength. The performance thresholds for side thrust loads were as follows: low-strength encompassed the cyclic load capacities ranging from 649 to 934 N, medium-strength spanned the cyclic load capacities between 935 and 1221 N, and high-strength entailed 1222 N and above. Notably, the classification devised in this study is closely aligned with the widely accepted and internationally recognized ALA specification. This strong consistency with global standards reinforces the reliability and applicability of the classification system developed in this research. In conclusion, this study enhances understanding of wooden chair strength performance and offers practical insights that lead to higher-quality products and improved consumer satisfaction. Its recommendations can potentially drive positive change within the industry and benefit manufacturers and consumers. Full article

The supply chain of the tourism industry, including air transportation, travel agencies, souvenirs, and hotel services, is almost at a breaking point, causing a rise in unemployment with huge losses during the COVID-19 pandemic period. In order to overcome these losses, we propose that luxury hotels should consider offering budget hotels at a lower cost but with satisfactory accommodation in order to create some turn-arounds in the post-pandemic era. However, budget hotels that branch off from luxury hotels cannot post the same room rates because there are some uncertain factors that affect the traveler experience when staying in budget hotels. In this study, we define four types of risk factors for the self-selection of the consumer model, and then find that the optimal room price appears to be independent of the performance risk for the service quality, brand image, and shuttle buses, but is dependent on physical risk in terms of priority number risk, the financial risk of refund rates, and the privacy risk of investment in the system. Finally, we discuss how government subsidies can encourage branched budget hotels by describing three sensitivity scenarios. The results show that subsidies that go towards staff training and higher-frequency shuttle buses will cause consumers to book more stays in budget hotels and, thereby, contribute to a higher profit. By lobbying the policy on government subsidies, budget hotels that branch off from luxury hotels are a profitable business model for a reduction in the huge losses occurred during the period of the spread of COVID-19. Full article

Prior studies on urban hotel service settings show that the positive response to the lobby artwork and interior design in a hotel is a performance determinant since it directly impacts the orientation of green customers’ preferences who form a significant part of the primary and secondary consumers outcome of emotional satisfaction. In addition, it elaborates on the importance of marketing strategy based on hotel interior design for urban hotels intending to increase customer loyalty. For this reason, the present study collected a total of 330 South Korean participants to identify the mediating role of hotel lobby interior design and artworks between green customers’ preferences and hotel loyalty. The survey instrument designed for the current study included 15 questions to test the hypotheses and a path analysis using AMOS 24.0 was conducted as the main tool to determine the relationship key factors. According to our statistical findings, it is acceptable to relate the customers’ environmental awareness with interest in artwork in the hotel lobby due to the first impression created. The artwork gives a general perception of the value and quality that the consumer is likely to gain by interacting with the available products and services. It is also valid to indicate that the customers’ environmental awareness closely relates to their preference for interior design to develop customer loyalty. Therefore, we conclude that the environmental awareness and hotel loyalty factors impact the marketing strategy and segmentation process used for the urban hotels that deal with green customers with unique and exclusive needs. Full article

This research proposes a data-driven systematic method to discover service opportunities in a specific service sector. Specifically, the method quantitatively identifies the important but unsatisfied customer needs by analyzing online review data. To represent customer needs in a structured form, the job-to-be-done-based customer outcomes are adopted from the outcome-driven innovation (ODI) framework. Therefore, job-to-be-done information is extracted from the review data and is transformed into customer outcomes. The outcomes having high service opportunities are selected by metrics for quantifying the importance and satisfaction score of the outcomes. This paper conducted an empirical study for hotel service using relevant review data. The results show that the method can identify customer needs in hotel service—e.g., maximizing safety to pay price/deposit, and maximizing possibility to avoid waiting at lobby—and objectively prioritize strategic directions for service innovation. Therefore, the proposed method can be used as an intelligent tool for the effective development of a business strategy. Full article

The main lobby of Hotel Okura Tokyo has a good reputation for its sound environment, which affects the conversations of its users. We assumed that the lobby’s reputation was related to its speech intelligibility. In this study, first, the sound during hotel operations was measured to see if there was a difference in the sound environment between the lobby and the entrance hall. As a result, we clarified that the difference in noise levels affected by the degree of crowdedness of the room was smaller in the lobby than in the other rooms. Subsequently, the indoor noise and speech intelligibility were measured to clarify the correspondence of intelligibility with the lobby’s reputation. As a result, the indoor noise was found to be at a level suitable for hotel lobbies and the intelligibility was good. A comprehensive evaluation that included the results of other acoustical surveys revealed that the lobby of Okura is a space that is suitable for conversations, corresponding to the opinions of users. Full article